"The first time I killed someone I was scared. Not scared to be doing it. I did it because I was scared. Shella told me it was like that for her the first time she had sex. I Was fifteen that first time. Shella was nine."Yeah that's the opening paragraph to this incredible piece of remorseless noir.For those of you already in the know about Andrew Vachss it might not come as a surprise, however I hadn't read any before now and even that paragraph being the main focus of the cover art of this edition didn't prepare me for the reality of the content.At its heart this is a beautiful love story about two damaged little fuckers, Ghost has been seperated from Shella and is willing to do whatever it takes to find her. Told entirely in the first person his journey through the bowels of American society portrayed in such a way as to make the filth and grime of his surroundings and the legions of the disenfranchised seem perfectly natural. Vachss doesn't use these locales and these people as other authors do, as the freaks to give meaning to the relatively normal life led by the protagonist and reader, but simply shows you the truth of the situation without judgement.Truth and reality are two words that constantly came to mind as I devoured this book, the content might be shocking and violent and somewhat removed from the reality of my life but the style of Vachss leaves you certain that this could happen and most likely is happening at this very moment somehwere not too far from here.The stripped bare of all non essentials nature of Ghost as a protagonist is a reflection of the approach towards the noir genre of the author, the plot goes where it needs to go with no red herrings, no macguffins and most definitely no frills. When I think about noir as a genre three words generally spring to mind; bleak, brutal and bloody, and Vachss pulls no punches with all three.So where does the beautiful love story fit in to this dark tale? Ghost is clearly devoted to Shella, it's not just the plot of the book, she's his raison d'etre. We get glimpses of them as a couple through flashbacks and memories and whilst they never lived a Brady-like lifestyle the affection they felt for each other is apparent from their actions in these often poignant scenes. The juxtaposition of their relationship with each other and the rest of the world results in a major conflict in the way you as the reader see these people. It's no longer easy to write them off as evil, as mongrels of society.The only thing stopping me from giving this book full marks is the middle section which involves a plot to kill a racist leader. It's very well written and works as a device to display exactly who Ghost is and what he's willing to go through for Shella BUT it just didn't feel right for me. The first section is a brilliant and powerful introduction to the story and the world of these two people that I felt like I could read for hundreds more pages and the second section felt like an attempt to pigeonhole the narrative in to a traditional story structure. I got the impression that Vachss had the opening in mind and the ending already written and just picked a random idea that allowed him to make a statement about racist behaviour for the middle.Now to find one of his Burke novels.
Vachss has to be one of (if not THE) most consistently dark and intense writers of crime thrillers I've ever read, so I was expecting some grim stuff in the pages of this book but I was still surprised at how truly traumatic things got in this relatively short novel. Obviously the Burke novels often get pretty fucked up but they still have some levity to them, mostly in the form of comic-book feeling stuff like complex DIY gadgetry and an obsession with martial arts and of course Burke's "family", who are like a gritty crime Superfriends. There's also sections in those books where you can tell Vachss just wanted to have fun, like the horse racing scenes.Well, there's none of that stuff in this book. It's an extremely straight-ahead and brutal story of a dude named Ghost who kills people with his bare hands for a living. It's mentioned and heavily implied that Ghost had a terrible childhood, and as a result he's a remorseless sociopath, doomed to wander the world without any kind of genuine human connection--until he meets Shella. Because this is an Andrew Vachss novel Shella is even more fucked up than Ghost with an even worse childhood. It's a match truly made in heaven. And also because this is an Andrew Vachss novel, things go wrong pretty early on in this budding romance for the ages.A prostitution-mugging racket the two live off of goes really, really bad one night and Ghost goes to jail for three years. When he gets out he obviously has only one thing on his mind--Shella. The novel is about Ghost's struggle to find his lost love. Unfortunately, the greasy underworld Shella haunts and the fact that the only commodity Ghost has to offer is his ease with murder combine to make it a nightmarish journey. Literally every character in this book is impossible to relate to or entirely unlikable. Violence, depravity and sex are wanton and I have no absolutely no idea how the hell I somehow ended up kind of rooting for Ghost and hoping for a happy ending. (view spoiler)[Obviously nothing even vaguely fucking resembling a happy ending goes down, so yeah. Not wholly surprising but the sheer horror of the ending did get to me. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Shella (1994)?
This was recommended to me a while ago when I was looking for something scary to read. Yep. It was scary and pretty realistic too, I think. It has pretty much every real- life scary thing you can think of: neo-nazi’s, horribly abused sex-trade workers, scary hit men, prison rapes, murders of every sort, gangsters, well you name it- Shella’s got it.Ghost (we never know his real name) is a talented (and severely troubled) hit man that grew up hard in the system. First in an orphanage and later in juvenile detention centres and prisons where he learned to kill or be killed which is where he came by his trade. Ghost hooks up with Shella, an exotic dancer with a mysterious but presumably horrible past and they love each other as well as they know how considering their pasts. When Ghost goes to jail Shella disappears and upon his release, Ghost sets out to find Shella. In order to find Shella, Ghost becomes indebted to people that can help him and has to ‘work’ in exchange for information.Vacchs writing is in-your-face brutal and straight forward, his characters are believable and well written. My only complaint is that sometimes Vacchs seemed so into his characters, that he forgets the reader is not quite as familiar with them and leaves some things unsaid- which was a bit confusing. Unless that was Vacchs intention and the characters were so damaged, with such a void in their lives that there was really very little reason internal dialogue. Even though Ghost was no hero (he is a hit man) he had a conscience, and really was decent, all things considered. I felt sad for the characters in this book, it’s really not for the squeamish and the brutal realism is quite sad. Having said that, I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed Shella, it’s not the kind of book you ‘enjoy’, but I’ll certainly read another.
—Helena
Vachss writing is spare and brutally to the point, the man doesn't waste a word. The world he writes about is bleak, devastating and brutal. In Shella he delves into the world of a young boy abandoned, living with fear and the constant threat of abuse, who grew up to be a cold-hearted, brutal killer for hire known as Ghost. Only Shella, a street toughened dancer, ever saw beneath the hard shell. They are separated when Ghost is thrown in jail. When he's released his only goal is to find Shella.This is an interesting look into the life of a killer. How cold-heartedly it happens out of necessity and survival. The book is bleak and disturbing. This was a difficult to put down book but I don't think it's one I'd like to revisit again.
—Bark's Book Nonsense
I got deceived by some of the reviews. For example there's one that mentions the first paragraph:The first time I killed someone I was scared. Not scared to be doing it. I did it because I was scared. Shella told me it was like that for her the first time she had sex. I Was fifteen that first time. Shella was nine.Plus a realistic love story between a couple of violent and twisted psychopaths... It can't get much better than that! But while that holds true, the writing killed it for me. Mostly the punctuation. The whole story follows that same pattern as the quoted paragraph. On top of that, without the same level of rotten psychological meltdown :( Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh since that same day I read A Good Man is Hard to Find and that set the level significantly high, but still not sure...
—Pablo
